Energy Scarcities Cause Food Scarcities

There are many components to the cost of growing food and shipping it to its final destination – a surprisingly large part of which is energy. Moving water around the state of California uses 18 percent of all the electricity and 31 percent of the natural gas consumed in the state.

And of course, pumping water is only one element of the energy that is part of the food supply chain. Think of the:

• Manufacturing and transportation of fertilizers and pesticides
• Sowing, harvesting, and processing
• Transporting the food to market

The average food item we consume in the U.S. travels 1200 miles to reach our supermarkets, and even “fresh” food is two weeks old (and far less nutritious than it was when it was harvested) by the time it gets to us.

Thus it is with great pleasure that I say that I’m fairly close to entering the aeroponics business. Though I can’t provide too many details rat this moment, I can point out that aeroponics maximizes the yield of pure, organic food with no synthetic chemicals or toxins. Plants are grown in an automatically controlled mist — a mixture of water, air, and naturally occurring minerals. Plants grow better and faster than they do in soil, in a system that has a far smaller eco-footprint than conventional agribusiness.

I think of aeroponics as a single solution that speaks to many super-hot topics simultaneously:

• Organic farming

• Locally grown

• Food deserts (An area in the industrialized world where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain, prevalent in rural as well as urban areas)

• Shortages of energy/water/food in the face of climate change / extreme weather conditions

• High fuel prices / Oil scarcity

More on this soon.